Still not quite there, is it? Our "compassionate conservative" president, who on the whole has turned out to be nearly as bad as the Democrats he ran against (A+ in killing terrorists, D in everything else), is trying to rally the troops to keep the White House in Republican control, and it's going to fall flat. Conservatives know that neither McCain nor Huckabee truly share their beliefs, no matter how good a speech they give. (I really love the part about how McCain's speech was "surprisingly well-received" and how it got "polite applause". You know, where I come from, polite applause usually means we're just minding our manners, rather than issuing forth with a rousing chorus of "Bullshit!")

For years, I've held my nose and voted for Republicans, even when I knew that they were really RINOs, and I did it because voting for Democrats was unthinkable, and I just couldn't bring myself to stay home. This time, I just don't know if I can whore myself out like that again. I sincerely thought Fred Thompson had the conservative chops, but his campaign, for whatever reasons, fell flat. Ron Paul would make a decent second choice, but his campaign, while really pretty impressive when you consider it, isn't getting any real traction.

No, not *that* kind of medical preparation (Though it could be useful--and who would have thought they had a web site?) We're talking about preparing for a medical emergency, or a time when medical help isn't easily available, say in the aftermath of a major disaster.

As I was continuing my research on solar power, I ran into the BuildItSolar web site. Lots of nifty stuff, including a section that is just up my alley: Frugal Living Energy Ideas. One that is particularly interesting is suing bubble wrap as a window insulator. You can't see clearly through it, but it will still pass light while increasing the R value of your windows dramatically. Pair this with their Cardboard Shutter, and people in extremely cold climates, or people in places where winter is rough, or just folks in houses that are suddenly just too expensive to heat may find a difference between cold and cozy.

Let's see, 3 layers of cardboard sandwiching 2 layers of bubble wrap, each of which has a layer of aluminum foil...fitted tightly to the windows...removable during the day, or replaced with a layer of bubble wrap if perfect visibility isn't necessary...

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

It really chaps my rump the extent the anti-freedom forces go to in their attempts to take away our rights. Today's liar is one Calvin Godfry, who blogs for the Miami New Times (sorry, no links to the loony leftists' home page; I feel dirty enough linking to the blog entry), along with the first commenter to his post, Florida is Bottom of the Barrel on Gun Control, where he bemoans the fact that Florida only got 8 points in the Brady Bunch's latest BS-a-thon.

Personally, I think that's a pretty good score, Florida. Shoot for a perfect 0 next year, will ya?

However, bad as Calvin is, commenter MichelleH is worse. She whines"I just hope this article doesn't encourage people to buy more guns, just what Florida needs. Ugly? I'll say, given the number of domestic shootings and murders increasing nationwide, especially here in Florida." She continues in a similar vein, piling lies atop innuendos and covering the whole thing in poorly done sarcasm.

"...why is it that there's not a single scientifically valid and reliable study that proves even a medium correlation, not even link just correlation, between increased gun restriction laws and lower crime rates?"

"Nothing like a bit of rational thinking and reasoned discourse on a Monday."

"The author of this tripe is a moron and knows nothing about the issue at hand."

and my personal favorite

"You Floridians are going to have to work harder. Here in ol' Kaintuck we got a '2.' Of course we're shooting for a zero, or preferably negative integers."

You tell 'em, boys!

Now, just for fun, I' like to leave you with a single statistic on that 8 point Brady state, Florida. This comes from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's "Florida's Crime Rate at a Glance" page:

1997 Violent Crime Rate: 1025 per 100,000

2006 Violent Crime Rate: 706 per 100,000

Yeah, all those e-e-e-e-vil guns are really causing that violent crime thing to go way up, huh?

You know, as a mild Anglophile it's pretty depressing to watch the once-Great Britain sink into the muck. Perhaps we should take up a collection to buy Sir Winston some new bearings--he's surely burned out the ones he was buried with.